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11 Jun 04 - 10:10 AM (#1205134) Subject: Lyr/Tune Add: GREEN BUSHES From: *#1 PEASANT* GREEN BUSHES When I was a walking one morning in May, To hear the birds whistle and nightingales play, I heard a young damsel so sweetly sang she, 'Down by the green bushes where he thinks to meet me'. I'll buy you fine beavers and fine silken gowns, I'll buy you fine petticoats flounced to the ground, If you will prove loyal and constant to me, Forsake your own true love and marry with me. I want none of your beavers nor fine silken hose, For I ne'er was so poor as to marry for clothes, But I will prove loyal and constant to thee, Forsake my own true love and married we'll be. Come let us be going, kind sir, if you please, Come let us be going from under these trees, For yonder is coming my true love I see, Down by the green bushes, where he thinks to meet me. But when he got there and found she was gone, He stood like some lambkin was left quite forlorn, She's gone with some other and forsaken me, So adieu the green bushes, for ever, adieu. I'll be like some school boy, spend my time in play, For I never was so foolishly deluded away, There's no false-hearted woman shall serve me so more, So adieu the green bushes, it's time to give o'er. Sometimes said he is substituted for adieu give o'er = be done X: 1 T:Green Bushes M:3/4 L:1/4 S:Polwarth K:D |B,| E (E/2G/2) (F/2E/2)|^D E F | B F G| E2 (G/2A/2) B B e| d c B| A B c| B2||(G/2A/2)| B B e| B c d| F (A/2G/2) (F/2E/2)| D2 (G/2F/2)| E E (F/2E/2)| D E F/2 A/2| B F G| E2|| |
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15 Dec 04 - 09:32 AM (#1357546) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Green Bushes From: Big Tim A lovely old song. Recorded by John McCormack. Appears, I'm told, I haven't actually seen it, in P.W. Joyce's, "Ancient Irish Music" (1873). |
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15 Dec 04 - 09:38 AM (#1357552) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Green Bushes From: padgett Verse 2 I stepped up unto her and this I did say Where are you a going to be walking this way I am waiting for my true love, kind sir she did say Down by these Green Bushes where he vowed to meet me Comes to memory |
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15 Dec 04 - 12:34 PM (#1357713) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Green Bushes From: Q (Frank Staplin) A version from Sharp, English songs, in the DT A note in Sam Henry's Songs of the People, p. 395, along with seven verses: "The song was sung by Mrs Fitzwilliam in Buckstone's play "The Green Bushes (1845) and it was published in Duncombe's "Musical Casket" and other collections at the time. Since then, the words often have been credited to J. B. Buckstone, with the music composed by E. F. Fitzwilliam, but we can presume that it was traditional long before it was used by Buckstone." Other titles- "Down by the..." and "False Lovers." No evidence is given for its traditional origin. The first reference in The Traditional Ballad Index is to Buckstone's play, but their coverage is limited. The Bodleian Library has a broadsheet which they date ca. 1813-1838, printed in London, called "Sweet William," which has the tune "Green Rushes." Firth c.13(10). |
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15 Dec 04 - 03:01 PM (#1357848) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Green Bushes From: Big Tim 1813-38, wow, it's older than I thought. McCormack sings that verse, Padgett. Sean O Casey also wrote a song, rather words, along very similar lines. Can anyone access Joyce? |
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15 Dec 04 - 04:33 PM (#1357909) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Green Bushes From: Q (Frank Staplin) The song also has a long tradition in England. I can find no reference to the song before 1845 except the use of the tune noted above. Is this a different "Green Bushes"? I am confused by the entry in numachi, where there are two melodies, the first accompanying a verse of "Green Bushes" that I don't know. Are there two different songs indicated here? Green Bushes |
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15 Dec 04 - 06:03 PM (#1357988) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Green Bushes From: Kevin Sheils It's no. 23 in Joyce's "Ancient Irish Music", page 25, and he links it with 3 other tunes nos 21, 22 and 24 as having the same air. There are no lyrics given but Joyce states that it was taken down in 1853 from the singing of Joseph Martin (the book then says see page 5). Unfortunately the only copy of Joyce I have is very tatty and some pages are missing including page 5 which I assume has more info on Joseoh Martin, although probably not the lyrics. |
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15 Dec 04 - 06:13 PM (#1357996) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Green Bushes From: Q (Frank Staplin) Several tunes. See thread 24291: Sweet William There are two in the DT. The first (Wagon Lad) is the same as the first in Numachi, and the other is like the second in Numachi. The tune in Sam Henry's "Songs of the People" differs from both. Most versions drop one or another of the verses to make six, but Henry printed all seven. There is surprisingly little difference in the lines so I would guess that all are based on the lyrics in Buckstone and Fitzwilliam. Henry "sees lambkins at play," Contemplator and #1Peasant hear "nightingales." Henry's order is: As I went a-walking Why are you loitering here, Oh, I will buy you fine beavers Oh, I want none of your beavers Come let us be going, kind sir, When he came there and saw she was gone I'll do as the schoolboy, spend my time at play. |
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20 Apr 06 - 05:54 AM (#1722615) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Green Bushes From: GUEST,GE Not as old as the previous examples, but George Butterworth collected a version, I think in Sussex. Variant tune and, as so often with Butterworth's work, some interesting distortions in the words. Published by EDFSS in "the Ploughboy's Glory". |
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20 Apr 06 - 06:13 AM (#1722628) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Green Bushes From: Joe Offer Here's the entry on this song from the Traditional Ballad Index: Green Bushes, The [Laws P2]DESCRIPTION: The singer courts a girl he meets by chance, offering her fine clothes if she will marry him. Although clothes do not interest her, she is willing to marry, even though she is already pledged. Her former love arrives and comments bitterly on her falsenessAUTHOR: unknown EARLIEST DATE: 1845 (in the play "The Green Bushes" by Buckstone); before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian Johnson Ballads fol. 30) KEYWORDS: courting love clothes infidelity FOUND IN: US(NE,SE) Canada(Mar,Newf) Britain(Scotland,England(South)) Ireland REFERENCES (15 citations): Laws P2, "The Green Bushes" Sharp-100E 40, "Green Bushes" (1 text, 1 tune) Meredith/Anderson, pp. 173-174, "Green Bushes" (1 text, 1 tune) Sharp/Karpeles-80E 48, "Green Bushes" (1 text, 1 tune -- a composite version) Copper-SoBreeze, pp. 240-241, "Down by the Green Bushes" (1 text, 1 tune) Kennedy 156, "Green Bushes" (1 text, 1 tune) SHenry H143, p. 395, "The Green Bushes" (1 text, 1 tune) Ord, p. 147, "Green Bushes" (1 text) Greenleaf/Mansfield 30, "The Green Bushes" (1 text, 1 tune) Karpeles-Newfoundland 84, "Green Bushes" (1 text, 1 tune) Creighton-NovaScotia 19, "Green Bushes" (1 text, 1 tune) Flanders/Brown, pp. 246-247, "Way Down by the Green Bushes" (1 text) MacSeegTrav 66, "Green Bushes" (2 texts, 2 tunes) Darling-NAS, pp. 134-135, "The Green Bushes" (1 text) DT 491, GREEBUSH* Roud #1040 BROADSIDES: Bodleian, Johnson Ballads fol. 30, "Among the Green Bushes, &c," J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Firth c.18(145), "The False Lover" ("As I was a walking one morning in May"), unknown, handwritten note "1827"; Harding B 11(52), Harding B 17(4b), Harding B 11(51), Harding B 11(53), "The False Lover"; Harding B 11(52), Harding B 17(4b), Harding B 11(51), Harding B 11(53), Firth c.18(147), "Among the Green Bushes"; 2806 b.10(80), Harding B 11(3102), "Down by the Green Bushes"; Firth c.18(146), Harding B 20(64), Johnson Ballads 512, 2806 c.8(194), 2806 d.31(71), 2806 c.17(157), Harding B 11(1416), Harding B 11(1889), Harding B 18(220), "Green Bushes" [same as LOCSinging as104920] LOCSinging, as104920, "The Green Bushes," J. Andrews (New York), 1853-1859 [same as Bodleian Harding B 18(220)]; also sb10147a, as101350, "The Green Bushes" CROSS-REFERENCES: cf. "The Cutty Wren" (tune) cf. "Farewell to Tarwathie" (tune) cf. "Queen of the May" (theme) cf. "The Shepherd's Lament" (theme, floating lyrics) Notes: Not to be confused with the song called "Behind the Green Bush" in Huntington. The latter appears to be derived from a minstrel piece (the lovers are "Damon" and "Pastora"), and does not appear to be traditional. - RBW Broadside LOCSinging as104920: J. Andrews dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. One of the Bodleian broadsides, Johnson Ballads fol. 30, has the written date "1827" though the printer is not known. In any case, broadside Bodleian Johnson Ballads fol. 30 predates the 1845 play by Buckstone. - BS Or at least its publication; Buckstone was not a very successful author, though certainly prolific. The Londoner (1802-1879), who was an actor as well as a writer, is credited by the New Century Handbook of English Literature with "200 melodramas and farces," but Larousse's Biographical Dictionary counts only 150, none of them being of any note. (My quick check revealed the names of only three pieces, and none of the contents.) Buckstone did do a tour of the U. S. in 1840; it is thus possible that he introduced the British song in America. - RBW File: LP02 Go to the Ballad Search form The Ballad Index Copyright 2006 by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle. |
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18 Dec 08 - 03:24 PM (#2519168) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Green Bushes From: Q (Frank Staplin) The version of "Green Bushes" posted by No. 1 Peasant was (also?) printed in Boston MA by L. Deming. Song sheet at American Memory, printed with two other songs. |
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19 Dec 08 - 06:53 AM (#2519657) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Green Bushes From: Mr Happy http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=iwpDzpcEZSs |
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19 Dec 08 - 09:37 AM (#2519767) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Green Bushes From: GUEST,leeneia Those old-timers were amazing folk. They didn't spend time agonizing over decisions or suffering fear of commitment. One glance at the damsel, and the narrator wants to marry her. One sentence from her, and they're committed. Lover comes to meet her one time, and she's not there, so he foreswears love forever. (What if she'd been home, ill or injured?) I hope it's got a pretty tune, because the story is so callow it's not worth the time. |